What is the greatest common monomial factor of #2k^3 + 6k^2 - 14k#?
1 Answer
The answer is
To begin with this problem, let's consider the context of what the problem is asking. It wants us to find the common monomial factor of the quadratic. What this means is how can it be factored out into an expression that still acts as the original function, but in a way it can be done much easier in simplification.
In each term, we notice that
In numerical steps:
which then becomes
This is really useful when you are dividing/multiplying expressions; by doing these kinds of factors, you can make equations/answers much simpler if they can be. Here is a good video on factoring quadratic equations and simplification from Mark Lehain: